Forbes: Get Ready For Apple's 'Magic Wand' Remote

Apple is working on a "magic wand" remote device that could operate and sync the company's television, phone, internet and other devices, according to Forbes.

Initial word of the wand device came from an Apple patent application uncovered by Fierce Cable, a trade blog for cable executives. Fierce Cable said the application revealed the device could contain fingerprint sensors that would be used to authenticate viewers and deliver personalized content.

With fingerprint authentication, it “becomes possible that you will have an authenticating remote with you wherever you go,” Forbes said. “The functionality of the wand could easily be part of an iPhone, but the benefit of the wand is that it’s not a phone, won’t have a screen that can crack if a child drops it and will be inexpensive enough for people to buy multiples for multi-user game play.”

Forbes said if the technology works, and Apple users are able to access diverse content on any Apple-enabled TV by holding a wand, it would be a “game changer.”

The idea of such a device that accesses content across multiple platforms is not new – Forbes speculated the idea may be what the late Apple founder Steve Jobs meant when he told his biographer before he died that he had “cracked” something new in terms consumer technology.

Speaking of his unnamed breakthrough then, Jobs said, “It would be seamlessly synced with all of your devices and with iCloud. … It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine.”

Forbes said a wand remote would also make parental controls on content fairly effortless and potentially let the consumer make purchases in addition to showing content on a screen.

Fierce Cable said its analysis of the patent application concluded the wand remote could be used to navigate programming from the existing Apple TV Internet video set-top, to navigate content from other media devices, including content delivered via coaxial cable, to provide access to the user’s recordings, and to control an on-screen cursor to navigate video.

Philly.com speculated the wand remote could be used in an upgrade to the $99 Apple TV set-top box, about 13 million of which have been sold.

“But the smart remote is more likely to debut as centerpiece of that fully integrated, Internet streaming-focused Apple TV set that the company has been striving to introduce and may already have in production,” Philly.com said.